Mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs must be based on secure knowledge. In this assembly, pupils will learn about and reflect upon the key Christian beliefs around Holy Week and Easter.

OPENING ACTIVITY

The Happiness Quiz

This quiz features eight multiple-choice questions that are all based on respected scientific studies. You can ask the questions to the whole cohort or to teams or individuals. Pupils can answer verbally or by a show of hands. Pupils are responsible for keeping their own score.

The clip begins after the collapse of Hockey Island and finishes when Bing Bong reaches the train stop.

If you cannot play the clip, say:

As Riley is growing up, her memories are changing too. Her pre-school memories are being demolished and pushed into the Memory Dump. On their way to catching the Train of Thought, Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong come across this scene of destruction. Bing Bong’s truck that he and Riley used to pretend was a rocket gets pushed into the Memory Dump. The loss of the ‘rocket’ upsets him and he sits down. Joy tries hard to cheer him up in order to keep going towards the train stop but Bing Bong does not move. Then Sadness approaches Bing Bong and sits down next to him. She talks to him about how important the rocket was to him and how sad he must be feeling. Bing Bong bursts into tears and sobs on Sadness’ shoulder. His tears fall as sweets. After a while, Bing Bong dries his eyes and says, ‘I’m alright now’ and sets off for the train. Though she doesn’t quite understand how Sadness managed to get Bing Bong moving again, she has a new respect for her. The trio make it onto the Train of Thought.

Film clip 2:

Start Time: 01:10:27

Finish Time: 01:13:40

Clip Length: 3 minutes and 13 seconds

The clip begins when Joy says, ‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ and finishes when Joy turns away from the cliff.

If you cannot play the clip, say:

Joy and Bing Bong have become stranded in the Memory Dump. But then they remember that his truck (rocket) was pushed into the dump before. They use the rocket to try to escape but fail twice. On their final attempt, Bing Bong deliberately falls off the back of the rocket, allowing it to fly out of the Memory Dump with only Joy onboard. Joy is unhappy when she sees Bing Bong still stranded in the dump below. He disappears as Riley’s memory of him fades. Joy promises him that she will take Riley ‘to the moon’.

Begin by telling pupils that today’s assembly uses clips from the film Inside Out and explores the themes of joy and sadness.

[PowerPoint slide 2]

Introduce the Happiness Quiz. This quiz is based on findings of respected scientific studies.

[PowerPoint slide 3]

Question 1: Which is the happiest nation on Earth?

a) United Kingdom

b) Switzerland

c) Togo

(Source: World Happiness Report, 2015)

[PowerPoint slide 4]

Answer b) Switzerland.

According to the study, Togo is the least happy country in the world due to its poverty, very low life expectancy and poor education system. The UK ranked as the world’s 26th happiest country.

[PowerPoint slide 5]

Question 2: Where is the happiest place in the United Kingdom?

a) Liverpool

b) The Orkney Islands

c) Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland

(Source: Measuring National Well-being, Office for National Statistics 2015)

[PowerPoint slide 6]

Answer c) Fermanagh and Omagh.

In general, people who live in rural areas in the United Kingdom reported higher levels of happiness than people in big cities. The Orkney Islands was rated the fifth happiest place in the UK whereas Liverpool was rated the fifth least happy place.

[PowerPoint slide 7]

Question 3: How old are the happiest adults?

a) 45-59

b) 60-64

c) 65-79

(Source: MRC National Survey for Health and Development)

[PowerPoint slide 8]

Answer c) 65-79.

It seems that as adults get older, they become happier. Scientists believe this is caused by older people having more time to do what they want to do. Adults aged 45-59 were reported to be the least happy of all adults. Children become less happy as they get older.

[PowerPoint slide 9]

Question 4: You will be happier if you have lots of…

a) Friends

b) Money

c) Things to do

(Source: World Happiness Database, Rotterdam)

[PowerPoint slide 10]

Answer c) Things to do.

Whilst having enough money and a few good friends makes people happy, an increase in the amount of both does not make people happier. People who keep busy are happier than people who don’t have enough to do.

[PowerPoint slide 11]

Question 5: You will be happier if you…

a) Spend money on yourself

b) Give it away to others

c) Use your money to treat other people

(Source: Harvard Business School, 2013)

[PowerPoint slide 12]

Answer c) Use your money to treat other people.

Whilst spending money on yourself and giving to charity can both make you happy, the greatest amount of happiest is to be gained by using your money to treat other people.

It doesn’t matter what you think you are good at so long as your skill is recognised by other people. Other studies have found that being good at something is the result of many hours of practice.

[PowerPoint slide 15]

Question 7: What percentage of your level of happiness is a result of what you do?

a) 100%

b) 40%

c) 10%

(Source: Global Equity Strategy, 2004)

[PowerPoint slide 16]

Answer: b) 40%.

Scientists believe that 50% of your happiness level is set when you are born. 10% is due to what happens to you during your lifetime. Therefore, a huge 40% is down to your deliberate actions. So, if you are feeling unhappy, you can do things that make you happier, e.g. exercise, practise a skill, keep busy, spend time with your close friends.

[PowerPoint slide 17]

Question 8: People who describe themselves as being ‘very happy’, report that they are unhappy…

a) 0% of the time

b) 10% of the time

c) 20% of the time

(Source: World Happiness Database, Rotterdam)

[PowerPoint slide 18]

Answer: b) 10% of the time.

If you were never unhappy, you would not know what happiness feels like. When bad things happen in your life, as they do to everyone, it is perfectly okay to feel sad.

[PowerPoint slide 19]

This is the message of the Oscar-winning film, Inside Out. It tells the story of Riley, an 11-year-old girl who, like everyone else in the film, is controlled by five emotions – Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust. When Riley is growing up, Joy tries to make sure that she is happy all of the time. She excludes Sadness from having any part in Riley’s life. But, when her family move house, Riley finds it’s difficult to express her emotions about this big change in her life.

[PowerPoint slide 20]

In the midst of this crisis, Joy and Sadness get lost in a different part of Riley’s mind, where they meet Bing Bong, an ‘invisible friend’ that Riley invented when she was younger. In one scene in the film, he becomes very upset. Joy doesn’t know how to help him, but Sadness does.

Play film clip 1

Start Time: 00:47:08

Finish Time: 00:49:42

Clip Length: 2 minutes and 34 seconds

The clip begins after the collapse of Hockey Island and finishes when Bing Bong reaches the train stop.

If you cannot play the clip, say:

As Riley is growing up, her memories are changing too. Her pre-school memories are being demolished and pushed into the Memory Dump. On their way to catching the Train of Thought, Joy, Sadness and Bing Bong come across this scene of destruction. Bing Bong’s truck that he and Riley used to pretend was a rocket gets pushed into the Memory Dump. The loss of the ‘rocket’ upsets him and he sits down. Joy tries hard to cheer him up in order to keep going towards the train stop but Bing Bong does not move. Then Sadness approaches Bing Bong and sits down next to him. She talks to him about how important the rocket was to him and how sad he must be feeling. Bing Bong bursts into tears and sobs on Sadness’ shoulder. His tears fall as sweets. After a while, Bing Bong dries his eyes and says, ‘I’m alright now’ and sets off for the train. Though she doesn’t quite understand how Sadness managed to get Bing Bong moving again, she has a new respect for her. The trio make it onto the Train of Thought.

[PowerPoint slide 21]

Ask the children to describe how Joy and Sadness dealt with Bing Bong differently. Sadness succeeded in getting Bing Bong to get moving again because she allowed him a moment in which to be sad.

[PowerPoint slide 22]

The Easter story, that appears in all four Gospels in the New Testament, is one of joy and sadness. It begins when Jesus arrives in Jerusalem to a hero’s welcome. Everyone is cheering and singing His praises.

[PowerPoint slide 23]

But then, this joy turns to sadness when, having dinner with his friends, Jesus tells them that one of them is going to betray Him which will lead to Jesus’ public execution.

[PowerPoint slide 24]

After dinner, Jesus and his friends go to a place to pray. Jesus is very upset by the thought of what lies ahead of Him and asks His friends to keep Him company but they all fall asleep. In His distress, Jesus is alone.

[PowerPoint slide 25]

That night, Jesus is arrested, put on trial and found guilty. The next morning, He is whipped, taken out to the Jerusalem dump where he is nailed to a cross. At about three o’clock on that day, Jesus dies.

[PowerPoint slide 26]

In churches all around the world, Christians remember the day on which Jesus died. It is a very solemn day in which people think about how Jesus suffered. Candles are blown out and bells are not rung. In Germany, the day is called Karfreitag, ‘Sorrowful Friday’. But in English-speaking countries it is called Good Friday. But what’s so good about a day that remembers the death of someone like Jesus? Some people believe that ‘Good’ is just another word for holy but others think that Jesus died for a reason. His death was a sacrifice that achieved something really, really good for the whole world.

[PowerPoint slide 27]

In the film, Inside Out, there is a scene that features the sacrifice of one of the characters for the good of all the others. It takes place after the first clip that you saw and it features the characters of Joy and Bing Bong. They are now both stranded in the Memory Dump with no way of getting out, but then they remember the rocket.

Play film clip 2

Start Time: 01:10:27

Finish Time: 01:13:40

Clip Length: 3 minutes and 13 seconds

The clip begins when Joy says, ‘We’ve got to get out of here,’ and finishes when Joy turns away from the cliff.

If you cannot play the clip, say:

Joy and Bing Bong have become stranded in the Memory Dump. But then they remember that his truck (rocket) was pushed into the dump before. They use the rocket to try to escape but fail twice. On their final attempt, Bing Bong deliberately falls off the back of the rocket, allowing it to fly out of the Memory Dump with only Joy onboard. Joy is unhappy when she sees Bing Bong still stranded in the dump below. He disappears as Riley’s memory of him fades. Joy promises him that she will take Riley ‘to the moon’.

[PowerPoint slide 28]

In the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, there is a beautiful passage that Christians believe is about Jesus, even though it was written many hundreds of years before His death. Part of this passage reads:

He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down…But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. (Isaiah 53:3-5 NLT).

[PowerPoint slide 29]

Most Christians believe that through His death on the cross, Jesus took on responsibility for all the wrong things ever done by human beings, in the past, now and in the future.

[PowerPoint slide 30]

The story of Easter, however, does not end with the death of Jesus because on the Sunday after Good Friday, according to the Bible, God brought Jesus back to life. Most Christians believe that Jesus’ resurrection means that, after death, they too will be brought back to life by God and will live with Him forever. These two beliefs about being forgiven and living with God forever make many Christians happier than anything else on Earth. They call this feeling the Joy of Easter.

Headings and Bullets

[PowerPoint slide 1]

Inside Out: Joy and Sadness.

[PowerPoint slide 2]

The Happiness Quiz.

[PowerPoint slide 3]

Question 1: Which is the happiest nation on Earth?

[PowerPoint slide 4]

Question 1: Which is the happiest nation on Earth?

b) Switzerland

[PowerPoint slide 5]

Question 2: Where is the happiest place in the United Kingdom?

[PowerPoint slide 6]

Question 2: Where is the happiest place in the United Kingdom?

c) Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland

[PowerPoint slide 7]

Question 3: How old are the happiest adults?

[PowerPoint slide 8]

Question 3: How old are the happiest adults?

c) 65-79

[PowerPoint slide 9]

Question 4: You will be happier if you have lots of…

[PowerPoint slide 10]

Question 4: You will be happier if you have lots of…

c) Things to do

[PowerPoint slide 11]

Question 5: You will be happier if you…

[PowerPoint slide 12]

Question 5: You will be happier if you…

c) Use your money to treat other people.

[PowerPoint slide 13]

Question 6: The happiest children are those who…

[PowerPoint slide 14]

Question 6: The happiest children are those who…

a) Enjoy secure relationships with others

b) Believe that they are good at doing something

c) Are recognised for being good at doing something

[PowerPoint slide 15]

Question 7: What percentage of your level of happiness is a result of what you do?

[PowerPoint slide 16]

Question 7: What percentage of your level of happiness is a result of what you do?

b) 40%

[PowerPoint slide 17]

Question 8: People who describe themselves as being ‘very happy’, report that they are unhappy…

[PowerPoint slide 18]

Question 8: People who describe themselves as being ‘very happy’, report that they are unhappy…

Dear God, We thank you for everyone and everything that brings us joy into our lives. We thank you especially that we are alive and can experience happiness. Help us to be patient and to get through times when we are sad. Help us too to be a comfort to other people. We thank you for Jesus, the man of sorrows, who took on all the wrong things in the world and overcame them for the sake of everyone.